ARTICLES ABOUT CRACK COCAINE BY DATE - PAGE 3

A 24-year-old man was charged with dealing crack cocaine to a confidential police informant in Allentown on four occasions, according to court records. Melvin L. Houpe, with no current address, was charged with selling the drugs on four different occasions, starting on Oct. 11, according to court records. He was also charged with incidents on Nov. 27, Dec. 31 and June 4, according to court records. The first three transactions happened in the 400 block of Liberty Street and the last one happened in the 100 block of Gordon Street, police said.

Bethlehem police charged a man who had 55 small plastic bags of crack cocaine early Tuesday, according to Northampton County Court records. Hector Noel Rentas Jr., 22, of the 100 block of East Madison Street, Easton, is charged with two counts of possession with the intent to deliver drugs. He was sent to the county prison under $35,000 bail. According to court records: Around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, an officer was on patrol in the 500 block of Alaska Street when he saw a man, identified as Rentas, duck behind a parked vehicle as the officer passed.

A man charged with throwing bleach in a woman's face is now facing drug charges after allegedly arranging sales of crack cocaine to confidential police informants last month, according to court records. Donell Nelson, 38, of the 300 block of South West Street, was charged Tuesday in the assault, but Allentown vice officers had been investigating him for at least a month. According to court records, a confidential informant arranged drug sales with Nelson on Aug. 5, Aug. 8, Aug. 9 and Aug. 19. The informant knew Nelson by his street name, "Black.

An Allentown man faces drug offenses after police found crack cocaine in his pocket on Wednesday night, according to court records. Francisco A. Rodriguez, 32, was standing with another man in the area of Refwal and Tilghman streets at 10:42 p.m. Wednesday when two police officers stopped to question them, according to court records. The officers asked what they were doing and they answered they were deciding what kind of beer to buy, according to court records. They did not say where they were going to buy the beer, but a bar is nearby.

A 26-year-old man was charged with selling crack cocaine in Allentown, according to court records. Luis A. Rivera, with no current address, was charged Friday with four counts each of possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine and criminal conspiracy. He was arraigned by District Judge Donna Butler and was sent to Lehigh County Prison under $1.2 million bail. All four of the arranged drug buys happened in May in the 900 block of Pine Street, according to court records. The drug sales happened on May 13, May 15, May 16 and May 28, police said.

An Allentown man led police on a pursuit through city streets early Sunday that ended with his arrest on drug charges, according to court records. Steven Guerrero, 22, of the 800 block of North Plymouth Street, was spotted twice at 1:30 a.m. Sunday by an Allentown police officer who was patrolling the 300 block of North Jefferson Street because of problems in the area, according to court records. According to a criminal complaint: The officer attempted to get close to Guerrero's sport utility vehicle, but Guerrero drove off and failed to make a complete stop at a red light.

An Allentown man was charged Thursday with attempted homicide in a shooting last year that left a man paralyzed, according to court records. Christopher Chevelle Jackson Jr., 22, also faces several weapons and drug charges for allegedly selling guns and drugs to confidential police informants, according to court records. Jackson was arraigned Thursday night on eight separate cases, including the attempted homicide of early Aug. 19, 2012, in the 300 block of North Ninth Street.

A couple were charged with transporting drugs after they were stopped Tuesday night in Upper Saucon Township, according to court records. A state police trooper with the Fogelsville barracks stopped a car going west on Interstate 78 at 11:06 p.m. for tailgating a tractor-trailer, according to court records. According to a criminal complaint: The driver, Daniel Maldonado, 24, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and his passenger, Geovanna M. Reyes, 23, of Reading, appeared nervous and were shaking.

Northampton County prosecutors had a purely circumstantial case: no eyewitnesses, no confession and no murder weapon. To prove that Naheem Adams was a killer, they had to rely on the testimony of druggies who offered inconsistent and contradictory statements. But the prosecution still insisted at this week's trial they would prove that Adams was guilty of gunning down a rival drug dealer during a scrap a year ago outside a home in Easton's West Ward. Though Assistant District Attorney John Obrecht conceded the evidence was weaker than he would have liked, he argued to a jury Thursday that it was still enough.

An Allentown man who attracted attention Thursday when he backed his vehicle into a parked car in the city's downtown was arrested after police found crack cocaine in his pockets, police said. Antonio D. Bradshaw, 48, of the 600 block of Lawrence Court hit the other vehicle about 12:50 a.m. on N. Ninth Street, just north of Linden Street, the police arrest affidavit says. A patdown by city officer Joseph Ianetta found seven rocks suspected to be crack cocaine in his pants pockets, the affidavit says.